Knights of the Old Republic
December 4th 2007 02:06
.
Serious gamers shed a little tear when these games came out, realizing that the Star Wars universe was unlikely to produce a game worthy of praise.
Two things happened in 2003: first, Star Wars Galaxies came out, which was a MMORPG set on 10 different planets in the universe, with legendary characters and locations. It was well-received and complimented on its dedication to the atmosphere of the movies, and the complex player interactions.
The second event was the release of Knights of the Old Republic, an RPG set in the Star Wars universe, but 4 000 years previous to the time of the original movie trilogy.
Yeow! What an idea! Instead of trying to cram in another insignificant story in the gaps between the movies, KOTOR broke new ground by working in the past, where the elements of the universe are very similar, but with the freedom to make a truly epic story.
The game was developed by BioWare, an Edmonton-based gaming studio that was developing a heavy reputation for high quality games. The passion for this game is evident in every step of the game. As you take the main character to a variety of worlds and environments, it feels so wonderfully true to the Star Wars universe that you'll be giddy with glee.
You'll travel the treetop walkways with Wookies, or explore haunted Sith Lord crypts, traveling the galaxy in your own proto-Millennium Falcon, the Ebon Hawk. I was so tickled throughout the game that I even took pleasure in the mindless fetch-and-return quests that are inevitably doled out in every RPG.
Perhaps the most invigorating aspect of the game is the damn story. As the story progresses, entwining your character deeper and deeper into a galactic conspiracy, you'll be forced to make difficult choices. Give a vaccine to the poor, or sell it for profit? Each decision pushes you further towards the Light Side or the Dark Side.
Travel down that dark path, and you'll gain evil powers, like Force Lightning and Drain Life, allowing you to do all those things that Vader did. Play like a goody-goody and you'll get the boring spells, though some of them are quite useful.
The point of the entire thing is that you can play KOTOR in several ways... as a brutish bully, a cunning thief, a valiant hero. It's up to you, which is the freedom that fanboys want to have in the Star Wars universe.
KOTOR is a spectacular game, one worthy of imitation and praise. A sequel was made by a different studio, and it tried to emulate the same atmosphere, but did so without the vitality of the first game. My palms got sweaty and my heartrate quickened when the dastardly plot in KOTOR was revealed, on the same scale as an excellent movie.
*these images are taken from Game Revolution and the last image is from 1up
| 76 |
| Vote |
Add To: 
subscribe to this blog
Comment by Jarrah
Back to the Eighties
One of the best games I ever played. So involving.
I'll prob do a blog on 80's video games soon - so any requests go this way!